Chicken Curry Recipe

Gizzi: “When making your own curry you save on so many calories. You also get way more flavour. Get out of the whole creamy curry situation and away from starchy side dishes and try a crunchy salad and some yoghurt as an accompaniment.”

Serves 4Preparation time 20 minutesCooking time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions, chopped

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tsp sea salt

4 – 6 cloves of garlic, crushed, (depending on how big a garlic fan you are)

3cm piece of root ginger, grated

1 – 2 long green chillies, finely chopped

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp madras curry powder

200g can of chopped tomatoes

8 chicken thighs, skin off, on the bone

500ml fresh chicken stock

A generous handful of fresh coriander chopped, use the root too for tons of flavour

For the rice

240g basmati rice

1 lemon sliced

A pinch saffron

1 tsp onion seeds

3 – 4 curry leaves

A good pinch of salt

For the salad

½ cucumber, seeded and finely chopped

2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 small shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp fresh coriander

Juice 1 lemon

Serve with 0% fat Greek yoghurt

METHOD

How to make a chicken curry

1. Bring a full kettle to the boil. Heat the oil in a large deep pan. Add onions and sauté for about 5 minutes until slightly golden then add the cumin seeds and salt and toast for a further 2 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a further 3 minutes until everything is nicely golden.

2. Turn the heat up and add enough boiled water to just cover the onions. Let them simmer slowly, stirring occasionally until the water has reduced almost completely. Keep adding water for around 10 – 15min until onions are a mushy. You are looking at making this into a paste so by all means go at it with a potato masher.

3. Turn the heat down to medium, add some more boiled water (again just covering the paste) and add the spices and stir. Cover with lid for around 5 to 10 minutes and add the tomatoes. At this stage it should be quite soupy, you don’t want it too watery so, if it is, keep simmering it until it has reduced.

4. Add chicken and give it a good stir. Pour over the chicken stock making sure there is enough to just cover the chicken then simmer it on a low heat, stirring it every now and then for 40 minutes.

5. To make the rice, put all the ingredients in a pan then cover with 1cm of cold water and a lid. Bring to the boil for 5 minutes and, when almost all the water has been absorbed, turn it off the heat, leave the lid on and let it steam for 10 minutes.